Drivers gearing up for Safari

Although the dust has barely settled since the first encounter in the Barbados Rally Club’s 2014 Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship, crews are already making preparations for the second qualifying round for the year, the Chefette April Safari on Sunday, April 6.

Being staged only three weeks since the March Safari launched the championship’s 11th season, next month’s event is running a week earlier than its traditional date, as the island’s motor sport calendar in April and May is filled almost to overflowing. The route is being set by Ricky Holder, the new MudDogs chairman, and Philip McConney, twice winning driver of the club’s oldest event – the June Safari – in the past decade.

The first crew is scheduled to leave The Mill, Canewood, St Michael at 8 a.m. for route one; the lunch stop will be at Chefette, Charles Rowe Bridge, St George at approximately noon, with crews heading back to the same location for the finish at around 4 p.m.

Holder explained: “The routes are set to run in the middle to southern part of the island at this time, as we still have a bit of cow itch to deal with. The route is fairly simple, if the rain does not fall, so we’re looking forward to a good event.”

Reigning champion driver Leslie Alleyne and navigator Chris O’Neal are the early leaders in the 2014 championship standings in their Isuzu D-Max. Two other experienced crews are hard on their heels, however, with Derek Gill and Andrew Croney (Mitsubishi Pajero) second and former champions Ryan Corbin and Dustin Edwards (Toyota Hilux) third.

Entries are now open at Motorsport Services in Haggatt Hall and will close next Tuesday (April 1) at noon. The briefing meeting will be at 7 p.m. the same evening, at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association Club House at Searles, Christ Church, after which the entry list will be published. (RB)

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